Minisite for Links.com?

[richrf]

Hi guys,

I have to go back to the drawing board for a while with Links.com, and rather than revert to a temporary blog format, I thought it might be worthwhile for me to investigate minisites, in order to generate some revenue.

Would a minisite be appropriate for Links.com? If so, if I want the highest quality site that has the potential for developing traffic, which of the minisite providers would be most appropriate?

As always, thanks for any advice and inisights.

Rich

 

[eFingerz]

no no no
i say stay away from golf the people that are highly active in golf stick to the major sites like pga.com etc
unless u get major backing i wouldn't touch golf
unless u just do a golf mini site just for affiliates and ppc!

with this name you need to go all in or go home in my opinion!

id honestly consider a ad network
may something like this could get you started untill you can afford to invest in something custom http://www.adquick.co.uk/index.php

Good Luck
PeAcE

 

[richrf]

no no no
i say stay away from golf the people that are highly active in golf stick to the major sites like pga.com etc
unless u get major backing i wouldn't touch golf
unless u just do a golf mini site just for affiliates and ppc!

with this name you need to go all in or go home in my opinion!

id honestly consider a ad network
may something like this could get you started untill you can afford to invest in something custom http://www.adquick.co.uk/index.php

Good Luck
PeAcE

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. Yes, ad network was one of my original ideas. Like other ideas I had, there were many subject matter issues (you really need someone with experience in this space), so I decided to go in a different direction.

While I am developing my site, I thought I might make temporary use of minisites, but as I look over the possibilities, it seems like a minisite would not provide much value (I could always go temporarily back to a blog if I wanted to).

Thanks everyone for your very helpful advice.

Rich

 

[chandan]

how abt GOLF.links.com - web.links.com

sell.links.com - buy.links.com or DUMPYOUR.links.com

start making sub domains :p

 

[richrf]

how abt GOLF.links.com - web.links.com

sell.links.com - buy.links.com or DUMPYOUR.links.com

start making sub domains :p

Yes, that was one I definitely contemplated, but I ultimately decided not to go ahead because it was too diffused. I want a specific focus and branding for Links.com.

Thanks for the helpful suggestion.

Regards,
Rich

 

[chandan]

sub domains are good to proceed now

as u can make a directory in dir.links.com without affecting future use of links.com home page

 

[GILSAN]

It's interesting that you are holding a rough diamond in your hand but not sure how to polish it.

 

[richrf]

It's interesting that you are holding a rough diamond in your hand but not sure how to polish it.

Yes, it has been difficult finding all the elements to complete the project that I have in mind. It is much easier to spend money than it is to receive value. The web development environment is very diffused, riddled with complexity and problems, and problematic. Finding good and reliable developers and designers for this environment is very difficult, since the good ones are, not surprisingly, well employed.

My girlfriend told me to do it myself ... but do I really want to go through the effort of retraining myself after I thought I finally successfully exited from technology. But as the saying goes .. "If you want to do it right, do it yourself."

But I am making good progress and will continue to plow ahead.
Rich

 

[blaknite]

Wow that was harsh. Got up on the wrong side of the bed today?

My $.02 Stay away from the golf angle. Microsoft will eventually find a way to get a piece of you. They've got big lawyers and I believe they own the links golf software franchise. (I'm not positive there its a vague memory)

What I'd do is a dating portal site. When you meet someone you establish a link between you and them. Forming personal "links" You'd have to go all out, but you could be stiff competition for match.com. I think your name is on the same quality level. Admittedly you'd have to make a real investment in advertising to get it going.

P.S. if you ever want to sell...

 

[richrf]

this is completely retarded...if you're not sure how to monetize a domain like this then you should go kill yourself and put this domain in your inheritance...make sure whoever inherits this domain is not related to you.

It very well may be. I might have missed something, so let's make a bargain. If you can give me a good, new idea for links.com, I'll pay you $1000. I'm serious.

Rich

Wow that was harsh. Got up on the wrong side of the bed today?

My $.02 Stay away from the golf angle. Microsoft will eventually find a way to get a piece of you. They've got big lawyers and I believe they own the links golf software franchise. (I'm not positive there its a vague memory)

What I'd do is a dating portal site. When you meet someone you establish a link between you and them. Forming personal "links" You'd have to go all out, but you could be stiff competition for match.com. I think your name is on the same quality level. Admittedly you'd have to make a real investment in advertising to get it going.

P.S. if you ever want to sell...

Hi there,

Thanks much for the idea. I looked very closely at a dating site, a couple of years ago, but rejected the idea for many reasons:

1) Costly to develop
2) Costly to maintain and monitor
3) Too much hassle dealing with people going on dates and meeting the wrong sort of people
4) Incredible amount of competition and difficult to jumpstart (e.g. Match, PlentyofFish)

Most dating sites, even the big ones, are fading away as just a few are left. Even Yahoo Dating is gradually succumbing to competition. So given the necessary investment in development (the scripts are terrible), and marketing and the ongoing maintenance and monitoring issues, I decided to pass.

The site I was developing, I thought, would be good, but I looked at Diigo the other day, and decided that they had the concept and did quite a good job. They must have received lots of funding and the group probably put in a lot of sweat equity. Still, it is difficult to monetize the site.

I am working on a simple interim concept until something really good comes to me.

Thanks again for your thoughts,

Rich

 

[Blitz]

It very well may be. I might have missed something, so let's make a bargain. If you can give me a good, new idea for links.com, I'll pay you $1000. I'm serious.

Rich

I'll take you up on that offer . Great name. You have probably thought of this already but I was on some affiliate link sites (CJ and others today) and thought that your name would be perfect as an affiliate link program. Look at shopzilla and click on affiliates. Something like that. Find a partner. Good luck on your Link$.com :gn:

 

[mrizos]

It very well may be. I might have missed something, so let's make a bargain. If you can give me a good, new idea for links.com, I'll pay you $1000. I'm serious.

Rich



Hi there,

Thanks much for the idea. I looked very closely at a dating site, a couple of years ago, but rejected the idea for many reasons:

1) Costly to develop
2) Costly to maintain and monitor
3) Too much hassle dealing with people going on dates and meeting the wrong sort of people
4) Incredible amount of competition and difficult to jumpstart (e.g. Match, PlentyofFish)

Most dating sites, even the big ones, are fading away as just a few are left. Even Yahoo Dating is gradually succumbing to competition. So given the necessary investment in development (the scripts are terrible), and marketing and the ongoing maintenance and monitoring issues, I decided to pass.

The site I was developing, I thought, would be good, but I looked at Diigo the other day, and decided that they had the concept and did quite a good job. They must have received lots of funding and the group probably put in a lot of sweat equity. Still, it is difficult to monetize the site.

I am working on a simple interim concept until something really good comes to me.

Thanks again for your thoughts,

Rich

omg...

 

[nameboi]

I think anything along the line of web links would have to be automated really well, so it should only be attempted by a really good programmer. And I think partnerships are very risky. So either you pay someone to do it properly, or you may be better off sitting on the name and waiting for someone will take it off your hands for the amount you'll be happy with.

 

[richrf]

omg...

Good idea. But I have already tried praying to God. Apparently, he is too busy to help me. But thanks anyway for the idea.

Rich

I'll take you up on that offer . Great name. You have probably thought of this already but I was on some affiliate link sites (CJ and others today) and thought that your name would be perfect as an affiliate link program. Look at shopzilla and click on affiliates. Something like that. Find a partner. Good luck on your Link$.com :gn:

Yes, I looked at this possibility very early in my thought process. However, after exploring the various requirements of a site like this, I concluded that it was very competitive and saturated market segment that would not only take a huge investment (very risky) but also very specific subject domain expertise. Something I do not have.

Appreciate sharing the idea with me.

Rich

 

[blaknite]

I can see where it would be too much to handle, but you might want to re-think the dating site idea. It all comes down to the eventual value of the traffic. I might pay five bucks for a hundred backlinks. I'd happily fork over a hundred bucks for a five minute date... Dating traffic pays well because its a base human need. If you've got to have it price is no object.

I've got a few generics in the dating field that its not uncommon to get $1-$2 clicks on. (I just wish they got more traffic)

Perhaps its a good candidate for leasing the domain?

 

[richrf]

God only helps those that help themselves.

You have (who knows the reason) been given a gift (or even a blessing) with a rock solid domain, something many here will never even sniff in their lifetimes.

Instead of figuring out what you're gonna' do with it, maybe you should be figuring out what you're gonna' do without it.

Get some professional help to get in the market for it's maximum value, then use some of the proceeds of the sale to go help somebody, or some group that really needs it.

You have shot down every idea the good folks of this forum have given you. It's painful to see everybody bending over backwards to help you, taking time out of their day to assist you in your quest or whatever it's called - just to have you excuse their ideas for one reason or another. I even went so far as to put you in touch with a professional, and you answered him with a "I'll let you know when I decide what I'll do", or something to that effect.

Now it's God's fault because he's too busy? That's embarrassing. I don't get easily offended, but that offends me.

Dude, get real. You know exactly what you have.

Instead of you asking us what you should do with it, we should be asking you what you're gonna' do with it.

I'm out. I have better things to do. I've spent enough time here already.

L2

Life is not easy. Bringing great ideas to the Web requires time, patience, ingenuity, ability to deal with frustration... and lots of sweat. At the end, it will turn out well. Patience has always worked well for me in my life. Good luck with your efforts.

Rich

I can see where it would be too much to handle, but you might want to re-think the dating site idea. It all comes down to the eventual value of the traffic. I might pay five bucks for a hundred backlinks. I'd happily fork over a hundred bucks for a five minute date... Dating traffic pays well because its a base human need. If you've got to have it price is no object.

I've got a few generics in the dating field that its not uncommon to get $1-$2 clicks on. (I just wish they got more traffic)

Perhaps its a good candidate for leasing the domain?

I think a dating site would be too much problems for someone like me. It requires a real knack for the business - and skin of steel. Dog eat dog and all that. Dating brings out the best and worse in all of us.

Leasing is another idea that I have pursued twice. Usually the lessor want to lease to buy. Makes sense to me. Why would someone invest in building a domain and then have it pulled out from other them. My interest is in developing the site, not selling it, so leasing is sort of tough from both sides of the deal.

I will keep dating in mind, but I actually revisit the idea periodically, and each time it actually feels less and less feasible.

Thanks again,

Rich

 

[BitcoinDK]

You should lease this domain out to those Einsteins in here that critisize you for not doing the right thing with this domain.

Lease it to mrizos for 6 months, lets see what he can make with it. The first 6 months a lower leasing fee, then higher if he wants to lease 6 month more.

Let us see what you can do mrizos. And if you have so good ideas, then accept richrf offer and tell him one of those brilliant ideas you have. Easy $1000 you could ever make. lol

Best regards,

 

[richrf]

You should lease this domain out to those Einsteins in here that critisize you for not doing the right thing with this domain.

Lease it to mrizos for 6 months, lets see what he can make with it. The first 6 months a lower leasing fee, then higher if he wants to lease 6 month more.

Let us see what you can do mrizos. And if you have so good ideas, then accept richrf offer and tell him one of those brilliant ideas you have. Easy $1000 you could ever make. lol

Hi there,

Good, unique ideas that have good risk/reward ratios are hard to find. But I am working on a new directory based idea that might lead to bigger and better things. My former idea got clobbered after I learned of Diigo. I can't believe that I didn't know about this site. It is quite well done, and there is nothing that I can do to improve on it.

Rich

 

[r3born]

Okay, here's my $1k idea
I don't know if it's also the case in the United States, but here in Europe the professional social networks are getting more and more popular. We've got specific-country ones, specific-industry ones, etc, etc. I'm talking about the likes of LinkedIn.

You have endless potential with this domain - you can do ALL types of professional social networks, either country-specific (poland.links.com) or industry-specific (marketing.links.com).

This is way better than dating sites, because the principle is the same (either monthly paid membership or a credits system), BUT the audience is completely different. You are much less lilkely to run into people creating duplicate accounts, publishing illegal content, carders, etc. Furthermore, the typical profile of a professional social network user is different too - he/she earns much more money (on average) than someone looking for a date.

This is what I would do. There is still a chance to get in if you offer a new concept.

 

[richrf]

Okay, here's my $1k idea
I don't know if it's also the case in the United States, but here in Europe the professional social networks are getting more and more popular. We've got specific-country ones, specific-industry ones, etc, etc. I'm talking about the likes of LinkedIn.

You have endless potential with this domain - you can do ALL types of professional social networks, either country-specific (poland.links.com) or industry-specific (marketing.links.com).

This is way better than dating sites, because the principle is the same (either monthly paid membership or a credits system), BUT the audience is completely different. You are much less lilkely to run into people creating duplicate accounts, publishing illegal content, carders, etc. Furthermore, the typical profile of a professional social network user is different too - he/she earns much more money (on average) than someone looking for a date.

This is what I would do. There is still a chance to get in if you offer a new concept.

Hi,

This was the exact idea that my last (now defunct) project was based upon. Setting up a way of sharing ideas among professionals (social networking for professionals). The problem is Diigo, which has done an excellent job.

One thing to keep in mind, is that social networking sites of all sorts have been developed from all angles, after MySpace and Facebook were purchased. I am not sure how successful these sites have been, but it takes a ton of backoffice support to maintain and monitor these sites, legal assistance, as well as constant research and development to maintain competitiveness in a very, very competitive market place. New idea like Twitter are few and hard to come by, but it you think you have a very specific new angle for the marketplace segment, that can be developed (or at least prototyped), within a reasonable budget, I am all ears. So far, I, and everyone else I talked to, have come up empty. BTW, the pre-made scripts for this market segment are junk beyond belief.

Thanks for the thought, and I will pay even more than $1000 for a really good idea that I haven't already thought of or hasn't already been mentioned.

Rich

 

[r3born]

Diigo is not exactly what I was thinking about.

The example of Twitter is not coherent here because Twitter was first conceived as an idea then the domain name was chosen. In our case, the situation is different because we have a domain name and we need to find a viable concept to use with this domain name. We have to be as close to the meaning of 'links' as possible and our possibilities, like the number of meanings of this word, are quite limited.

Obviously, the software will have to be unique for this concept. Links.com being the domain name to be developed, we are looking at a service which will allow people to create links between each other. The goal is to get rid of all the superflous stuff (like Twitter did).

The competitive advantages should be:
- extremely powerful and flexible search engine
- simplicity of use
- no frills

The main goal of the site would be to link people for:
- recruitment
- joint ventures
- start-ups: entrepreneurs meeting business angels
- freelance

There is still a chance to take the best things from established sites and launch a new service. In a couple of years I believe this opportunity will be lost.

Hi,

This was the exact idea that my last (now defunct) project was based upon. Setting up a way of sharing ideas among professionals (social networking for professionals). The problem is Diigo, which has done an excellent job.

One thing to keep in mind, is that social networking sites of all sorts have been developed from all angles, after MySpace and Facebook were purchased. I am not sure how successful these sites have been, but it takes a ton of backoffice support to maintain and monitor these sites, legal assistance, as well as constant research and development to maintain competitiveness in a very, very competitive market place. New idea like Twitter are few and hard to come by, but it you think you have a very specific new angle for the marketplace segment, that can be developed (or at least prototyped), within a reasonable budget, I am all ears. So far, I, and everyone else I talked to, have come up empty. BTW, the pre-made scripts for this market segment are junk beyond belief.

Thanks for the thought, and I will pay even more than $1000 for a really good idea.

Rich